According to statistics published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, every year since
2008, an average of 26.4 million persons around the world have been forcibly displaced by floods,
windstorms, earthquakes or droughts. This is equivalent to one person being displaced every
second. Depending on the frequency and scale of the major natural disasters occurring, there are
significant fluctuations in the total number of displaced people from one year to the next, yet the
trend over recent decades has been on the rise. Many find refuge within their own country, but some
are forced to go abroad. With climate change, the number of 'climate refugees' will rise in the future.
So far, the national and international response to this challenge has been limited, and protection for
the people affected remains inadequate. What adds further to the gap in the protection of such
people – who are often described as 'climate refugees' – is that there is neither a clear definition for
this category of people, nor are they covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention. The latter extends
only to people who have a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and are unable or unwilling
to seek protection from their home countries. While the EU has so far not recognised climate
refugees formally, it has expressed growing concern and has taken action to support and develop
resilience in the countries potentially affected by climate-related stress.